Actor Konkona Sen Sharma is shown as a hardworking career woman who buys new clothes for her family for a wedding, but ignores her own needs. Despite her mother (Zarina Wahab) reminding her to buy something for herself, she doesn’t, thinking she would make-do with a yellow sari she already has. The mother is then shown surprising her daughter with a new sari from Amazon, lovingly telling her she needn’t adjust and ignore her own self.

Our Take

This e-commerce ad appears fresh given the deluge of advertisements this festive season focussed on giving back and seeking high ground. Featuring Bollywood actors Konkona Sen Sharma and Zarina Wahab, the TVC smartly captures the upcoming wedding season, but instead of gifting others, it talks about rewarding oneself by not settling with what’s available. The creative does justice to the insight and the execution successfully propagates Amazon’s vast collection.

The campaign is part of the second phase of the #AdjustNoMore series. The first phase featured a series of films on various situations in which customers break out of the spiral of ‘making do’ with the next best thing. However, the focus is now on the emotional and cultural conditioning that creates a barrier to accessing the goods we really want.

The first leg of the campaign amplified the fact that with Amazon at your fingertips you don’t have to settle for less. The second phase is based on the insight that Indians work really hard for their growth and success, but when it comes to doing things for themselves, they make adjustments.

The first ad in the current series was launched during Diwali. It was about a father and daughter relationship where the daughter gets her father to buy a phone for himself. In this one, it’s the mother who prods her daughter to get a new sari. The larger thought remains when we work so hard, we needn’t compromise for ourselves. The current spot is expected to run for a month, followed by another similar relationship story. “During the last few decades in India, the advertising and media narrative has been dominated by the idea of a relentless pursuit of success. We haven’t encouraged stopping by and smelling the roses. And this has been a missed opportunity,” says Dheeraj Sinha, chief strategy officer, Leo Burnett, South Asia.

However, this second leg runs the risk of becoming predictable and with a starcast like this, one expects much more. Sure, the acting is understated as expected but in the middle of the commercial, you just get this feeling that you know where this is headed. Does that predictability translate into repeat watching? Your guess is as good as ours.